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| Inyo Good Road Club assembled in front of Istalia Hotel in Bishop for the dedication of El Camino Sierra, August 31, 1910. Courtesy Virtual Transportation Museum (Eastern California Museum) |
At the time, the
Inyo Good Road Club was in its fourth year desperately trying get the attention
of the State of California who had millions of dollars in road funds. The Club was
trying to fund the construction of a modern highway connecting the Eastern
Sierra to the State and the Nation. It was
a long hard slog.
In 1909, the
numbers of automobiles were growing exponentially in California spurring
lawmakers to call for a vote on an 18 million dollar road bond during the
November 1910 election. Its passage was not a sure thing. Local merchants and residents were desperate to
build good roads and didn’t wait for the election. They created the Inyo Good Road Club, one of
many Good Road Clubs across the nation, and one of the most active
Born on April
20, 1910, the Club began with 62 enthusiastic members and one especially gifted
man – Secretary of the Club Winsor Gillette Scott. He needed a promotional hook,
a concept for which an entire campaign could be centered. He coined the name El
Camino Sierra which loosely translated means Mountain Highway, a fanciful name for a road that did not exist.
Wagon trails,
and a few roads referred to as “two ruts in the sand,” were scattered between
Los Angeles and Tahoe. Scott’s vision
was to connect these trails and turn them into a first class modern highway. The Club was determined to give tourists and
their dollars an easy journey. Southern
California residents were already making trips to the Owens River Valley for
its scenic wonders, despite great effort.
So began the quest for El Camino Sierra.
W.G. Scott
and the Club began by inviting the Governor of California to become a member and
then immediately organized citizens into “Road Bees.” With picks and shovels they began to improve
the road between Big Pine and Bishop to catch the eye of the top man in
Sacramento, and it worked.
In a letter
to the Club, Governor James Gillett accepted
the honorary membership, saying “I have watched with great interest, the action
taken by the people in one county for good roads and I want to compliment them
for doing so. The Question of good roads
is one of the most important that our state now had before it...”
Sensing momentum,
the Club invited the governor to preside over the ceremonial dedication of El
Camino Sierra at a single 1.25 miles stretch of modern road in front of Fred
Eaton’s huge chicken farm near Big Pine. Scott combined that with the Railroad
Day Celebration marking the just completed railroad from Mojave to Lone
Pine. Long shots rarely hit their
mark...this one did. They were about to get a visit from the governor of
California.
During his
August visit, Governor Gillette enjoyed lavish ceremonies in every town from
Lone Pine to Mammoth where local fruits, vegetables, and mountain fish were
served. Elegant orations painted an
extraordinary picture of El Camino Sierra’s powerful impact on California’s
burgeoning tourist industry. The State would not just attract the nation, but
the world. After the visit, the governor had nothing be great praise for the
region. The roads dollars seemed assured, but the vote had yet to take place.
The crucial
November 1910 election came and the bond issue passed with great celebration. But the victory was bittersweet. For their greatest ally, the governor of California
was also up for re-election, and he lost.
Starting
over, 1911 began with W.G. Scott taking the Club’s official car on an
unrelenting lobbying tour to convince legislative committees, commissions, county
seats, and public & private organizations of the benefits of El Camino
Sierra to the State of California.
Hope began to
arise when Highway Commission engineers began visiting all corners of the State
to lay the groundwork for the new California Highway System. All the regions would be visited with one
glaring omission, the Eastern Sierra.
Undaunted, in
the summer of 1912 W.G. Scott began a new promotion to capitalize on the
building excitement of the San Francisco World’s Fair. Pasear les Tres Camino would be a grand tour from San Francisco to
Tahoe through Bridgeport and the Owens Valley to Los Angeles. Of course the road had to be built first, and
that was the whole idea.
Scott’s enthusiasm was infectious and soon
newspapers, publications and travel related organizations, even noted American novelist Peter B Kyne began singing the praises of El Camino Sierra. Still, road
funds eluded them.
A year later in 1913, something began
heading to the west coast, the unprecedented Transcontinental Lincoln
Highway. The National Hoosier Trail Tour
group was exploring two possible routes from the east coast to San
Francisco: one though Reno, NV, and the
other along the Midland Trail which crossed over Westguard Pass and would connect
to El Camino Sierra at Big Pine.
Members of the group, including A.L. Westgard,
Vice President and
Director of the National Highways Association, broke from the main group to attend festivities in Goldfield and Big Pine
who were celebrating their tour. (The Club named the pass after Mr. Westgard to
garner his favor in getting the Lincoln Highway). To memorialize the connection
of the new El Camino Sierra to the Midland Trail, they planted a Giant Sequoia tree
at what is now the corner of US 395 and SR 168.
Westgard championed the cause and lobbied heavily for the Midland Trail
proclaiming it’s “...commanding advantage as a transcontinental route.”
As a
result of the tour, the National Lincoln Association chose the Midland Trail as
the preferred route for the Lincoln Highway. Influential supporters, including
the Fresno Chamber, supported the route, but once again success eluded them. Everyone
was out lobbied by the Sacramento Chamber of Commerce. On October 31, 1913 Reno, NV got the Lincoln highway.
Despite the tireless work of Scott and the
Club, the Eastern Sierra was a forgotten land. After 4 years, bond money to
build El Camino Sierra still eluded them. But the Club’s greatest publicity stunt was
about to take place.
The Inyo Good Road Club signed a contract
with the premier aviator of the time, Silas Christofferson, to be the first
pilot in history fly over Mount Whitney. It would be a celebration not only of
aviation, but of Exposition Way, a
newly named portion of El Camino Sierra through the Owens valley which would be
a “natural choice” to reach the Pan American Exposition in San Francisco, the
World’s Fair. The Club sought to
capitalize on the confluence of national and world events, including the fact
Henry Ford was about to ramp up his groundbreaking automobile assembly line and
begin cranking out millions of cars.
The largest concentration of people the
Owens River Valley had ever seen gathered, hoping to become a part of aviation
history. They were not disappointed. On
June 25, 1914 Silas flew over Whitney breaking an American altitude record, and
the eyes of the nation were on Inyo County.
But could they capitalize on it.
A few months later the Club received word
that the California Highway Commission was planning to visit the Eastern Sierra
centering on El Camino Sierra. Immediately, residents of the Eastern Sierra rallied
into “road bees” and again took to the roads with picks and shovels to show
citizen commitment to the cause. The Club had been here before.
But this time the State highway engineer himself
came to the forgotten land. He and other State officials were deeply
impressed, impressed enough that orders soon came down from Sacramento. On
October 28, 1914 the commission approved State Highways funds for Inyo and Mono
counties.
But there was a hitch, financial
institutions were wary of California’s ability to repay bond holders. As a
result, only 4 million of the 18 million dollars in bonds were sold. So California counties had to buy the rest of
the bonds: Inyo’s share was $50,000 and Mono
was $100,000.
El Camino Sierra’s day had finally
come. The money arrived and work began
on a section of road called Sherwin Hill, a stretch of road wholly inadequate
for the modern automobile and critical to the connection of the two counties. And so, on October 4, 1915, work quietly
began on El Camino Sierra.
It took until August 24, 1916 to complete Sherwin
hill, and the trip from Bishop to Mammoth could now called “...a pleasant 2.5
hour drive...” The following month, a
celebration took place on the “hill” attracting over 1,000 people. But the dream of a modern highway from Los
Angeles through the Owens Valley was not truly realized until 15 years later.
A story titled “Closing the East-of-the-Sierras
Gap” was published in the March 1931 issue of the Journal of California Highway
and Public Works. It marked the
completion of a modern thoroughfare from Los Angeles through the Owens River
Valley to Sherwin Hill. But this final chapter in the life of El Camino Sierra
is not without irony. With nearly two
decades of blood sweat and tears by the Inyo Good Road Club, W.G Scott, and
residents of the Eastern Sierra, they saw the celebration take place not in the
Owens Valley, but 60 miles to the south in Red Rock Canyon.
Copyright © 2014 Theodore Grant Williams.
All Rights Reserved
For images, visit Eastern California Museum's Virtual Transportation Museum
